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Accentus Inc. review: Mistreatment of employees 65

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Beavus Complaints - Mistreatment of subcontractors
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Beavus
Posted: 2009-09-09 by Beavus

Mistreatment of subcontractors

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Accentus Medical transcription
Canada

Hi, I have worked with Accentus medical transcription company earlier this year and have found that it was a horrible experience. I initially loved it as I could work from home, however, after I got through their gating period, I then was paid less - went from $1.50 to $1.17 per audio minute which was the standard rate for anyone. The dictations then got harder, more was expected of you, you also had to do at least 200 audio minutes a week or risk being charged rental fees. Plus to make matters worse, I had two different team leaders. One was very good and followed the QA hospital guidelines to a tee, the next one I had marked me so hard, didn't always follow QA guidelines, and then put me back into the gaiting period and eventually I was terminated with no severance pay, just a email stating that I lacked research skills and that despite being on the 95% percentile and improving, ! had to be within the 98%. I was so angry as I had spent so much time and money on medical resource materials and yet everything was my fault. I would not work for this company again as they pass you down to human resources and tell you to try again later when really they are saying see you later, don't bother us. I hate this company and the way I was treated and I want other people to know that although their experience with them may be different, be careful as you may wind up with no job and feeling totally useless and stupid!

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65 comments
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MT Mama
Lethbridge, CA
Dec 23, 2013 1:02 pm EST

I have worked for accentus for 9 years now. If you guys think it was bad a couple years ago, you should see it now. The VR pay has been further cut to an insulting 56 cents a minute! There is almost zero traditional transcription on the account I am on. To make matters worse, the computer system they have moved us to, is caveman-like and makes things take twice as long as they used to. To make matters even worse than that, they have completely removed any ramp-up pay for newbies. And to make things pretty much unbearable, their IT department are a bunch of fools. They take upwards of a week to get back to you now (I just waited 9 days for the last call and was unable to work) and so you are sitting there making NO money while you wait. Their virtual machines (which by the way are actually illegal as they are not for commercial use - somebody should report them but I don't know who to call) are a total joke and are constantly freezing and don't EVER work properly which also contributes to how little money you can make in an hour. And I agree, their contract in NO WAY benefits the MT. It is a one-way street and it's disgusting. They only care about the bottom line. They don't care that there are people behind the phone or computer trying to make a living. I wish we could form a union of some sort across Canada and change this!

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MT's are awesome
Kingston, CA
Oct 04, 2013 7:36 am EDT
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Working for Accentus is not a good thing if you have little experience - new graduates. I am currently working for Accentus for over five years now and am really happy. I have almost 20 years experience typing in hospitals, clinics etc. I make very good money working about 5 hrs./day, Monday-Friday, and make about $120/daily. You have to be accurate, have great typing skills and speed - if you don't, don't bother applying. For the record the comments about the team leads are uncalled for. The Radiologist's are the ones that determine who works and who doesn't. If they are not happy with the reports some transcriptionist's type then they are the ones that have them "kicked" off the team. As well, I have never had an issue with the IT department - very helpful - or anyone else involved with head office at Accentus for that matter. If you were let go or work was not there to do it is probably because certain MT's just don't cut it. Think twice before applying if you have little to no experience! Some of these people that complain need to take responsibility for the fact that they just don't meet the standards set to work here and don't blame others for your failures.

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100wpm
Edmonton, CA
May 29, 2013 11:19 am EDT

Another Canadian hospital has outsourced to Accentus and the results aren't pretty!
http://www.stthomastimesjournal.com/2013/04/09/quality-of-hospital-transcription-services-suffers-with-outsourcing-worker

I began working for Accentus after 2 years working as a casual MT with no full time jobs opening. It has been almost 18 months with them, and most of the negative experiences already posted, I have personally gone through. Believe me, I'm not making much extra income because work always runs out, and the team leads were rude and patronizing. Eventually I got moved to a new account where my team lead was new, but I didn't think anything of this because we all start from somewhere. This new account had primarily foreign dictators I had trouble with, and on my first day of gating one incident sticks out in my head: despite spending TWO HOURS trying to figure out what one physician was saying on a three minute file, looking up 50+ past reports (which were all dictated by residents and interns, not the physician) I finally sent it in with several blanks. The next day, I received a nasty phone call from this team lead who called me incompetent for the blanks and lazy because I didn't spend enough time looking up old reports as supposedly I could have filled in 100% of the blanks! Really? Because I sure didn't find them! Team leads are paid by the hour and make more than the $1.72/hour I made on that one problem dictation! She also "corrected" things that she deemed wrong even though they were right in the first place as per the hospital's style guideline document.

I have nothing positive to say about Accentus except being able to work from home and write off a portion of my rent, internet, and electric bills. On a good day when I get work from them, I can make minimum wage. I would stay away though from this company, the lack of pay and terrible treatment are not worth it.

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Missy H
Montague, CA
Feb 24, 2013 9:56 pm EST

I have been working toward becoming a home-based MT. I am mortified at all the horrible mistreatment these MTs have had. I used to work at a call center and the similarities are almost exact. They are sweat shops - nothing less than slave labor.

Is there any hope for someone like me getting decent work for at home medical transcribing? Does anyone know of any medical transcribing companies who treat their MTs like human beings?

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USMT
Staten Island, US
Jan 07, 2013 7:21 pm EST

Once you question a pay discrepancy between advertised and verified by an HR employee but missing from your contract, they assure you that everything is fine and then all of a sudden your QA score, which was good, takes a huge nosedive. Next, you are told you made errors that you know you did not make. Then they call you and terminate you. I don't know how these people sleep at night. These companies are getting away with "murder" and something needs to be done about it. After my experience with Accentus, I am seriously thinking of hanging up my headphones because it seems like they are all that is left. I am disgusted with their lack of integrity and deviousness. They want to pay employees strictly on production and that is not legal. Because I knew that, and told them so, I was let go - all to save a dollar here and there. QA can come up with some really ridiculous errors that you supposedly made and then they tell you that you aren't up to par - but were a couple of weeks before as stated in an email. Stay away from them.

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A.K. Nair
Mississauga, CA
Oct 23, 2012 11:30 am EDT
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I am experienced medical transcriptionist, but new to Canada. Can anyone direct me a proper path to go in that direction. I have read the discouraging stores and i am bit scared. thanks.

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LilaRose
Cobourg, CA
Aug 29, 2012 7:27 am EDT

I just read that one MT has benefits that she's complaining about! Well, holy cow, Batman. Do you pay for benefits for the guy who fixes your roof or paves your driveway? And someone else complaining about $1.17 per dictated minute? Awesome! I knew going in that I would be paid $1.30 (!) until I was trained and out of gating, and that my pay would go down to $1.15 (!). I, too, had to upgrade my computer equipment. For my accounts, I needed to download an entirely separate Microsoft XP system, and that takes space, I'm afraid. It is the cost of doing business. I made a choice. I also chose to work at home as an independent contractor, and to me, that means that Accentus is my client. I made an arrangement with them that was, yes, on their terms, but acceptable to me; otherwise, I would not have signed the contract. Do I wish we were paid more for our expertise? Of course! But this is the way it is, and if we don't like the pay or how the industry is shifting so that hospitals no longer hire MTs, then we can go back to school. That's what we did when we were last looking for change, and it will work again.

As an aside, I've worked for other large MT companies, and believe me, they compensate and respect less than Accentus does.

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Scammed by Accentus
Vancouver, CA
Jul 23, 2012 7:24 am EDT

Anybody out there know of any GOOD Canadian outsourcing companies. I am looking for work but there's no way in hell I'd work for Accentus. Just want to make a living wage without having a nervous breakdown to earn it. Thanks.

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Scammed by Accentus
Vancouver, CA
Jul 23, 2012 7:18 am EDT

Contact Mike Old of the Hospital Employee's Union, details above. Hopefully, the union still has some power to keep fair wages and benefits for those lucky enough to be employed by a hospital.

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Scammed by Accentus
Vancouver, CA
Jul 23, 2012 7:16 am EDT

Below is a VERY INTERESTING article printed from Yahoo Finance on April 30, 2012.

Of particular note: "Accentus increased its billings to Providence Health Care and the three other health authorities by 151 percent between the fiscal years 2006/2007 and 2010/2011." So THEY INCREASED THEIR BILLINGS BY 151 PERCENT WHILE CUTTING THE WAGES OF IT'S OWN MT's FROM $1.17 per dictated minute (manual typing) to $1.15 per dictated minute! Is there anybody out there who is in a legal position to stop these criminals before they take over the whole damned MT World! (Puts me in mind of Nazi Germany!)

VANCOUVER, BRITISH COLUMBIA--(Marketwire - April 30, 2012) - The Hospital Employees' Union is raising the alarm about Lower Mainland health authorities' plan to completely contract out in-house medical transcription even though costs for limited outsourcing of this service ballooned from $2.4 million to $6 million in just four years.

The deadline for bids on the medical transcription contract was April 26. Providence Health Care (PHC), acting for Fraser Health, Vancouver Coastal Health and the Provincial Health Services authorities, says it will lay off 130 medical transcriptionists once the contract is awarded.

It's all part of a government-mandated exercise to shave $100 million from health budgets in the Lower Mainland. They say that contracting out medical transcription will save $3 million towards this goal, mostly in labour, rent and technology costs.

But an HEU investigation of health authorities' financial documents show that Ontario-based Accentus Inc. - a for-profit medical transcription firm - increased its billings to PHC and the three other health authorities by 151 per cent between the fiscal years 2006/2007 and 2010/2011.

Outsourced medical transcription is usually performed by home-based subcontractors who must put in about double the hours to earn the same wage, and work with few benefits.

HEU's secretary-business manager Bonnie Pearson says that contracting out of medical transcription is too big a risk.

"Based on their track record, I'd say health authorities will have a hard time controlling costs if they contract out 100 per cent of their medical transcription, " says Pearson. "In addition, outsourced medical transcriptionists do not have access to secure electronic medical records or other health care team members within the hospital system.

"Our in-house medical transcriptionists already spend a lot of their time editing and correcting outsourced work. What will happen if all the work is contracted out?"

Pearson also says British Columbians should be concerned about the privacy of their records, which would now be produced on personal computers by home-based contractors across Canada.

Medical transcriptionists are responsible for transcribing physicians' dictation of surgical procedures, consultations, patient histories, test results, and various other reports.

Backgrounder at www.heu.org.

..Contact:.
.Mike Old
Hospital Employees' Union
Communications Director
[protected](c)

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Scammed by Accentus
Vancouver, CA
Jul 23, 2012 7:01 am EDT

Re. Vancouver Coastal Health and Providence Health Care. Does anyone know if Accentus actually GOT the contract? HOPE TO HELL THEY DIDN'T! Really feel sorry for the MTs who used to work in the hospital and got hoodwinked into signing up with Accentus with all their false promises and talk of great wages and the 'FREEDOM' to work when you want. NOT THE CASE. If any of you got e-mails from Accentus promising you benefits, etc., etc., then you have it in writing! Why not take it to a lawyer and sue the ###! It's about time somebody did!

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$$$Not with Accentus
Vancouver, CA
Jun 01, 2012 7:45 am EDT

I only hope to goodness that Vancouver Coastal Health and Providence Health Care see some of these comments, so they don't give Accentus the contract. There have got to be better companies out there for this huge account. By better companies, I don't just mean serving the client, but also treating their MTs fairly and with respect. Oh my goodness, I only hope someone, somewhere, with a bit of clout, investigates this company and holds them to account for their terrible mistreatment of their MTs. I only hope the BC conglomerate of hospitals (which is a HUGE account) looks for a company that treats their MTs as fairly as they, themselves, treat their own employees. In the real world of real live hospitals and facilities, Accentus wouldn't last 5 seconds. If the unions didn't get them, the Labour Relations Board certainly would. Fingers crossed they do not get this account and hopefully the word will get out and they will lose all their other accounts. (Let them eat cake!) I wonder if we could forward this website to people who matter in the hope that Accentus is nixed in the outsourcing world. Horrible people.

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outsourcedMT
Newmarket, CA
May 22, 2012 2:18 am EDT

I find it impossible to make above $10/hour with Accentus. In response to the rude, callous, demeaning, and holier-than-thou words from fastphalanges: I have worked from home for many years (for a hospital and now Accentus because my hospital outsourced to Accentus), am disciplined, turn off my cell, don't have laundry going, etc. I treat this job as if I were at the office and in fact dress the part too. FWIW in hospital, where I worked for 15 great years, I churned out 100 to 120 minutes per shift. But then, work was constant and I got the hang of some very difficult dictators.

I have been sitting at my computer for four hours. So far today, a total of 15:36 worth of dictations have come my way. Only 2:07 of that has been straight-out dictation at $1.15/minute and the rest voice recognition at $0.70/minute. I notice that a total of 44 MTs plus two team leads are logged onto the system. This account is for a hospital in which I worked as an in-house MT for almost nine years and was part of a team of 15, a mix of full-timers and part-timers. With 15 people, we never ran out of work but we rarely fell behind either. But 44 people?

My account is overstaffed to the point where all I get is between one ten minutes of voice recognition per hour loading up in my inbox. I have been charged the equipment rental fee for four straight pay periods despite it not being my fault that I can't hit 200 minutes of dictation a week, and that is with me in front of the computer between 10 to 14 hours a day, six days a week.

The problems other posters have with their team leads has been my experience too: insulting and disparaging correspondences including a phone call in which the team lead basically called me names. In fact, of the 12 in-hospital MTs who with me went over to Accentus, only two of us stayed beyond six months. My own managers held Accentus in such low esteem that they did not accept Accentus contracts to be team leads. For me, though being an MT is my passion, I'm looking for a way out...unfortunately in the area where I live, outsourcing to Accentus has been the way to go for nearly every hospital. I have to agree, when one looks up past reports there are many mistakes. I have seen 'Advil' typed instead of 'Advair' on a patient's medication list as an example. I think this is what happens when the focus turns to productivity and time instead of quality. Alas outsourcing seems to be the way to go because the bigwigs main concern is saving money.

As a result of hospital outsourcing, I have lost my living wage salary and benefits. The Accentus recruiter gave the soon-to-be ex-in-house-hospital MTs a pep talk about how Accentus has a "comprehensive benefits package" available but it turns out that isn't the case and in fact this recruiter ignores us when we email and when we call her about it, she denies ever saying anything about benefits.

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CJK1
Vancouver, CA
May 08, 2012 3:22 pm EDT

I am a recent graduate from a BC college. I just finished my 3-week practicum with Accentus. What a nightmare that was. For 3-weeks I was sent insulting emails, no matter how long I spent on making sure my reports were correct and error free, there was always something wrong. Even though on my gating reports I was around 92 - 96%, I failed. What the hell is that...I would say that is a pass, at least in my books. I would spend a few hours replaying my crappy tapes to make sure that I had everything down correctly, and I would do my research on drugs.com/google/stedman's/and any other resource I had available. When my team lead said, I did not know how to research my material or that I did not spend enough time researching, that was the last straw. I was done with Accentus and I would not want to work for these people no matter what. To be underpaid, degraded, demoralized is just not worth it. This company should be investigated and put out of business. How do they get away with paying below minimum wage and then belittle you and make you feel worthless. Thanks Accentus for the pleasant experience. I am sure to pass this on to everyone.

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MTPro1
Richmond, CA
Apr 15, 2012 3:21 pm EDT

I too tried to work for this company. I have over 30 years' experience as an MT, yet they put me on accounts where the team leads were not MTs - one was a former nurse and the other worked in IT. I then switched to another account where they did not tell me they did more voice recognition than transcription and decided, after 3 days, that "I was not good enough for the team". On a third account, the team lead marked things incorrect that were actually correct, and was very disparaging with her comments. While I made decent money when I could work, I became very ill and was not able to get to a computer for some time and they unceremoniously terminated my contract. At this point, I make more money at home with private clients than I could ever make with Accentus.

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Who Are These People?
, CA
Mar 28, 2012 7:04 am EDT

Well, 'Just Get To Work, ' if you're sick of all the whining going on, why on earth do you keep logging in to this site. Surely, for someone who is an MT who works hard, I would think you would have better things to do than read the Accentus Complaints Board. So, 'Just Get To Work, ' butt the hell out of this site and (you all know what is coming next) 'JUST GET TO WORK.' As someone has already mentioned, this is a complaints board. People log in to complain. Nobody forces nitwits like you to log in and read the complaints. So, Get Back to Work!' Oh, and don't forget to let us all know how many thousands of dollars per week you are making. That's what holier than thou delusionals like you usually do! I'm surprised you haven't banked enough to retire by now!

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Wendy Yemm12
Toronto, CA
Mar 25, 2012 7:33 pm EDT
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I am not a team lead for Accentus, nor do I work for them. I am an MT who works hard. Just sick of all the whining going on.

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Santanbianna
Toronto, CA
Mar 11, 2012 2:24 pm EDT

Dear Just get to work: Your attitude and language just another perfect example of an Accentus Team Lead and/or Accentus management.

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Wendy Yemm12
Toronto, CA
Mar 11, 2012 6:30 am EDT
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Quit whining Santanblanna. People are entitled to post whatever they want. Just shut it, and get to work!

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Santanbianna
Toronto, CA
Mar 10, 2012 10:42 pm EST

Your insults are unnecessary, rude and callous. In case you forgot, THIS IS A COMPLAINTS BOARD. The MTs are on here specifically to complain. Not really sure why you are on here. It seems to complain about the complainers? Or maybe to brag how perfect you think you are. I really doubt if anyone else is interested in your opinion or would agree with you that "Accentus is not that bad of a company." This is a complaints board specifically for Accentus complaints and mistreatment of employees.

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fastphalanges
Birmingham, US
Mar 07, 2012 5:43 am EST

To the MT making $1500/week - I have to agree that some people can do this. I can average $30-40/hour on an easy account with plenty of work. However, if I have a difficult account or an account that runs out of work, it is very difficulty to make $30-40/hour, and yes, sometimes it seems like I only average about $10/hour. To all the MTs complaining on here, you really should stop and think about why you feel you are not making that much money. Do you sit diligently at the computer working non-stop? How often do you get up to take care of your household chores? How many personal phone calls do you have a day? For those of you with small children, how many times do you stop typing because someone is saying "Mommy"? I bring these questions up because not too long ago I had to answer all of these questions myself and I realized that I really wasn't spending as much time typing as I thought! To make money as an out-home MT, you MUST be self-disciplined! You must sit and type when there is work. When an account is slow, you just have to figure out when the dictation is being loaded and adjust your schedule accordingly. This is not an 8 to 5 profession. You might have to work a couple of hours in the morning, a couple in the afternoon and get the rest done at night. If you want a straight 8 hour/day job, this is NOT the profession for you! Accentus is not that bad of a company...certainly not any worse than the rest. You people just need to quit whining and get transcribing or else just get out of the business all together!

And by the way...I am not in any way affiliated with Accentus, before all of you start accusing me of that! I am just an MT trying to make a living for my family and wish that you whiners who aren't cut out for this work just move on so the rest of us can make the money we need!

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blizzah
London, CA
Feb 18, 2012 4:36 am EST

I do know how to use photoshop but it wasn't necessary. My next pay will be over $3000.

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anothercolddayinsask
Regina, CA
Feb 06, 2012 9:42 pm EST

Well I'm glad someone knows how to use Photoshop...

I had to write in my $0.02 worth as someone who has almost 12 years of work as an MT and 6 years as an MT supervisor. My husband was transferred in 2010 to a remote location, so I quit an in-hospital job. I found employment with Accentus shortly thereafter, and for two years tried very hard to make it work. My word expanders did not work with Accentus software. The account I was on frequently ran out of work and other MTs quit after 3 or 4 months. My team lead was rude and unhelpful. When my gating period ended, she continued to enforce a 10-dictation per day limit on me for another three months despite my infractions being all in formatting and not in context. VR made up almost all of the account I was on, so my earnings were terribly low. Thank goodness for my husband and my savings. When my 10-dictation limit was lifted, I was rarely working because the account had so many MTs there was never enough work to go around, and when I asked about being trained to work on a second account I was told that Accentus had enough MTs already.

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OldTyper
Toronto, CA
Jan 13, 2012 6:15 pm EST
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Your account must have NO ASR/Voice Recognition documents, if you able to use a word expander. Not sure that using a word expander would help everyone. Some use a "virtual machine" on their computer. Not even sure that Accentus allows the use of any type of word expanders. Shortcuts certainly do not work in VR documents.

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Wendy Yemm12
Toronto, CA
Jan 12, 2012 8:05 pm EST
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Blizzah, I agree with you. It is possible to earn a decent living as an MT. If people worked as much as they complain, their production just might increase.

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blizzah
London, CA
Jan 10, 2012 4:10 am EST

I wasn't making anything up and I am not a CEO - I'm an MT working for Accentus, and yes I did make $1500 that weak. More typically I make around $1000/week working long hours 3 days per week. I usually make around 30/hr or slightly more. Here is a picture of one of my paystubs, http://i.imgur.com/bGsXI.jpg

I usually do at least 1200 minutes every two weeks and sometimes a lot more. The most I've done in a day is 355 minutes. It is possible if you are fast and frankly if you're making $10/hr you should probably be in another line of work. It's not the company at fault, it's you.

Get a word expander and add to it every day that you work. If you aren't typing well over 100 wpm you probably aren't going to make very good money. I type about 150 wpm and use a word expander diligently, and frankly that is how you make money as an MT.

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OldTyper
Toronto, CA
Jan 05, 2012 2:45 am EST
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Take heart MTs, old and new. For certain, you have worked hard and studied diligently (paid and unpaid) as a Medical Transcriptionist. Note that I use capital letters in that title. As a Professional allied health worker and an MT, I can tell you, with my experience and vast knowledge, I too have suffered the same humiliation by this company. I could (am in fact) writing a book... Good on you, for posting. It's never easy for decent people to put their deepest and saddest emotions in print. Just know that you are not alone, you are worthy and you did nothing wrong. Greed and abuse runs rampant in our society these days. Those who participate in this type of insulting behaviour, expecting others to work, so they can play, have a lot to learn.

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Wendy Yemm12
Toronto, CA
Dec 23, 2011 3:56 am EST
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Hey, Yeeeees, I do not work for Accentus.

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YEEEEES!
Vancouver, CA
Dec 22, 2011 3:54 pm EST

'Just shut it, and get to work people?!' Thank you sooooooo much for writing that, whoever you are in Accentus Administration! You have just demonstrated, without any shadow of a doubt, to the whole industry, what complete aresholes you are! Hope the health authorities that you are desperate to win contracts with get to read this. It might just be the spanner in the works that tilts them towards another outsourcing company. One that doesn't still live in the Dickension workhouse era. You may just have cooked your goose by that oh so illuminating and oh so Accentus-type attitude. Maybe someone should send this weblink to those people before they make the wront decision and actually choose you! I guess part of the deal is that you make it worth their while financially. Meanwhile, you get raises and we get even less! Thanks again for just being you. I knew it was only a matter of time before someone smoked you out.

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Wendy Yemm12
Toronto, CA
Dec 22, 2011 12:33 am EST
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Just shut it, and get to work people!

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Liar-liar!
Kelowna, CA
Dec 18, 2011 4:03 pm EST

$1, 500 per week? Seriously? 1, 500 minutes a week? $6, 000 a month? Really? And I'll bet your QA scores are always 100% as well! What should we call you? Let's see now, 'MT Impossible?' 'Superscammer?' 'Delusional Nutcase?' Well, unlike the nurse who was reluctant to call you a liar, I have absolutely no problem saying it. In fact, let's say it together folks, 'YOU ARE A LIAR!' I agree with the person who said that you have dragged the Accentus reputation down further than it already was. There is absolutely no doubt in my mind that you are either an Accentus office employee who they got to write that crap, (probably dictating it over your shoulder with sickly smirks on their greedy, techy, trendy-spectacled faces) or, more than likely, you are one of the 'top dogs' (and I use the word 'dog' purposefully), who was sitting in your office one Friday afternoon before quitting for the weekend (no weekend work for you, why would you spoil your weekends? You make a decent hourly wage Monday through Friday!). You were reading this complaints board and you thought it would be a neat way to end the week by having a laugh and trying to discredit everyone who has honestly and sincerely had it up to their eyeballs with the Accentus ###! I would love to throw out a few names of the HR people in Accentus who I believe would be more than capable to pull such a ### stunt. (Does 'Super Dave' ring any bells with anyone?) Accentus, this would be disgusting if it wasn't so bloody sad! Oh, by the way, for the MTs who have worked over a year for you, when do we get our annual raise? I mean, everyone else gets an annnual raise. You're office staff get annual raises. I mean, everyone in Canada gets a raise once in a while? Love to know when ours is coming. (Oh yeah, I forgot, you actually DECREASED our wages from $1.17 a minute to $1.15 a minute. I guess that just about sums you bums up!)

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seashell99
Abbotsford, CA
Dec 15, 2011 12:25 am EST
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$1500/wk? I for one don't believe that one bit. What a joke. One of my former college instructors was an Accentus supervisor until quitting to teach full-time and told my class she never made more than $32K/yr. That was as a full-time team lead at 40 hrs/wk and not an MT! She also said the average yearly earnings for an Accentus MT working 40 hrs/wk is rarely above $30K, usually more around the $24K to $25K range. Either you have very repetitive dictators so you're able to do autotexts for entire dictations, or you lucked out and have nothing but physicians and NPs who speak clearly with no accents of background noise, and you don't have nasty team leads picking you apart or capping your minutes. In what capacity do you work for Accentus, blizzah? HR recruiter? CEO? Because you have dragged its reputation down further than it already was. Accentus is a horrid company that doesn't value its people, and judging by the many comments on this site from people with similar bad experiences, you and your colleagues should be ashamed of yourselves!

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crimson3itch
348 Jean Cauvier, CA
Dec 12, 2011 2:55 am EST
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@ disbelieving nurse I totally believe you! I think this person who posted how great Accentus is is one of their 'plants' i've seen this time and time and time again with other institutions i know of and it is just awful at the lengths they will go to in order to save face! Accentus obviously has ALLOT to answer for! She is lying, completely, i have NEVER heard of anyone ever making that amount of money no matter who they work for, unless there are some serious kickbacks involved, which in Accentus' case seems extremely likely! There are so many companies, schools, etc. that do this, i wonder, how do they get credited?! I hope Accentus dearly pays for what they are doing to their employees, and unfortunately there are some schools who i think may not be fully aware of just what is going on here (if they do, then that's just plain evil imo). I would love to see every MT get paid allot more than what they are, this is the hardest work i know of and it is the least recognized. I'm not working as of yet, but am planning on applying at the local hospital and hopefully get into an entry position if at all possible. I graduated this past October and have not found anything as of yet.

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disbelieving nurse
xxxxxxxx, CA
Dec 11, 2011 12:48 pm EST

To the person who reportedly makes $1, 500 per week, I'm not calling you a liar, but I just don't believe you! So, you make $6, 000 a month! Get serious! Re, your comment, "If you're making minimum wage it's likely due to lack of experience or ability." I have over 20 years experience in the medical field as a nurse working for a major hospital, I know exactly what I am doing, and there is no way in hell I'm EVER going to make $6, 000 per month. You're talking out of the back of your ###. You probably work for Accentus in an office capacity and they have asked you to post this as a way to discredit everyone who is complaining about the blatant unfairness of the Accentus system and the terrible wages. I doubt even the top executives in Accentus make $6, 000 per month! Experience and ability may account for some slowness on production, but on the other hand, no amount of experience and ability will get you $6, 000 a month working as an MT for Accentus. (Maybe you work 7 days a week, 15 hours a day. Who knows? Who cares? I don't believe you and, don't take this personally, but I'm sure nobody else does either!

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crimson3itch
348 Jean Cauvier, CA
Dec 05, 2011 9:45 pm EST
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Honestly, after all these posts i think my best bet is to work onsite at a hospital and then go from there. I had applied at Accentus and was turned down and i guess after reading these posts it was a real blessing in disguise! My school is going to help me with my resume so i can look for employment onsite here and i'm pretty excited!

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blizzah
London, CA
Dec 05, 2011 6:34 am EST

I'm really not sure what all the fuss is about. I've worked with accentus for a year and a half and this week I made just over $1500. The potential to make money is there, you just need to be fast and accurate. It takes time to learn and you really need to invest time into a word expander program to make that kind of money, but its 100% possible. If you are making less than minimum wage its likely lack of experience or ability.

p.s. I made about minimum wage when I started out. I make 25-40/hr consistently now depending on account.

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crimson3itch
348 Jean Cauvier, CA
Nov 11, 2011 3:28 am EST
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I just had to put in a comment here after reading so much about Accentus and the absolutely horrid way they treat their MTs. I recently graduated from CanScribe, and my experience with them was none too pleasant to say the very least. They kept saying how many of us would get hired by Accentus and talked them up repeatedly as if they were the best thing out there! It looks to me as if CanScribe `grooms` their students for `slave labor`for Accentus. And THAT disgusts me on too many levels! I cannot imagine how they can feel good about themselves knowing what they know about Accentus, getting all students pumped up, working and studying their hardest only to work for a company that is exactly like a `sweatshop`factory, Shame on you CanScribe and Accentus! It must be pretty awful having to leave your conscience behind when you go to work! I hope something happens to these two sham institutions, i really hope they go down, one can only hope for retribution!

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This is soooo enough!
xxxxxxxxx, CA
Nov 03, 2011 4:12 pm EDT

I have it on good authority that the reason the wages went down from $1.17 per minute to $1.15, is because that is the only way Accentus could keep a certain client -- by lowering the money the client has to pay them. So who gets shafted, the MTs (once again). They give the client a cheaper deal so the client won't go to a better company and the MTs take a wage cut. How long can this crap go on before someone in authority (Labour Relations, Labour Lawyers, someone in government) gets involved. This is not India. This is not Korea. This is Canada (in case Accentus has forgotten that). Glad I'm not alone in this misery. Does anyone feel like banding together and getting a lawyer to represent us. Illegal working conditions. Illegal contract. Illegal wages. Unreasonable expectations. Harrassment. Abuse. You name it. We could win!

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transcribing_no_more
Vancouver, CA
Nov 02, 2011 7:00 pm EDT

Hi, I too had similar grievances with Accentus this year. I was hired with little medical transcribing experience, but my two team leads were understanding of that. However, my training too was very brief and the reference files e-mailed to me had not been updated for quite some time. Team lead A and Team lead B told me different things. A would tell me about bolds, spacing and the like, but B would tell me different guidelines than A did. Team lead A told me different things on different days. As an example, she insisted I ignore a doctor who transcribed exactly where he wanted periods, commas, colons and semicolons to be because he was incorrect; then she told me that I must transcribe exactly what this doctor wanted and I have no authority or business to correct the doctor's work.

The nitpicking that other people have referred to was abysmal on my account. My QA scores were routinely 98-100%, yet most of my correspondences from one team lead was for her to pick me apart for poor research skills and not ignoring what she had told me about formatting. It's true about computers crashing and waiting upwards of a full 48 hours for the help desk; I too spent much time on unpaid labour like removing "No Dictation" files. I too was accused of laziness when sending documents to QA with blanks (there were three physicians on the account that all MTs had trouble with, so I don't know if I am the only one singled out for ineptitude) when in fact in an effort to better my skills, and at the expense of a paycheck, I re-listened at different speeds and compared the hard dictation to previous (and often incorrect) past transcribed reports.

Accentus is NOT obligated to provide us, the MTs, with 200 minutes of transcriptions each week. Several days on my account I was unable to log even half an hour of dictation because work was running out. To make up for my dictation commitment, yes, I gave up my social life to park my butt in front of my computer and wait for files to upload, sometimes 12 hours a day. How come it is US that get penalized with a $3.50 penalty if we cannot do more than 200 minutes of transcription when often it is NOT our fault? At the worst, I spent up to 60 hours a week in front of the computer to make a measly $150.

It was fairly obvious to me when I looked up older transcribed reports that other MTs felt as ripped off as me. The account had a very high turnover rate. Mistakes were abundant (despite QA, which boggled my mind). I for one cannot comprehend why any hospital would outsource to Accentus when quality is so poor. You get what you pay for, buyer beware! I am glad I quit when I did and advise any potential Accentus ICs to heed warnings given by others and myself. You are better off being given to a company that will treat you with respect and pay you decent wages.

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noone can speak english at surrey hosp
xxxxxx, CA
Nov 02, 2011 2:59 pm EDT

If you're still with Accentus, get out now! Major clients are not renewing their contracts with Accentue because of the bad reputation they have in the industry and the terrible way they treat their MTs. Even though hospitals get their transcription done cheaply through companies like Accentus, they still have integrity and scruples and I guess all this bad press is starting to make them think twice about whether they are doing the right thing by propping up a company who shafts it's own employees. Let's face it, the clients would never treat their own employees that way. (At least, the union wouldn't let them get away with it!)

There are many great companies out there who will treat you with respect, pay you decently and, most likely, steal the contracts away from Accentus. Don't leave it until you get the generic e-mail message saying, "You're out of work. Thanks for all the money you've made us so far, hope you have a great Christmas!"

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